


Down With the Fallen Again

by Cocopops1995



Series: Are We All Lost Stars (Shiro Week 2017) [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Headaches, Kuron, Season 4 Spoilers, Shiro Week 2017, day 4: black bayard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 12:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12794133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: A look at why we didn't see the black bayard in season 4.





	Down With the Fallen Again

On the eve of the day Keith leaves, Shiro walks into his room to find an unexpected surprise on his desk. It’s the black bayard, with a note bearing his name written in Keith’s handwriting propped up against it.

 

Shiro unfolds the note. Inside, he finds a simple message:

 

_“This has always belonged to you.”_

 

           -  _ _Keith__

 

 

Shiro’s lips twitch up into a soft smile as he reads those words, and his heart aches. He’s going to miss Keith, so much.

 

He puts the note down and picks up the black bayard. He hasn’t held it since he’d given it back to Keith the day the Black Lion had refused to respond to him. It hadn’t activated for him when he’d first tried back then, but perhaps it would now since Black is at least responding to him again. Although, the bond is not as strong as he remembers. He used to be able to feel the lion’s presence in the back of his head even when the lion wasn’t active. But when the lion deactivated today, it’s presence had disappeared from Shiro’s mind again, only to be replaced by that constant weird headache that had plagued him ever since waking up on that Galra ship.

 

The headache had completely disappeared when he’d connected with Black earlier. It had disappeared so quickly that it actually stunned Shiro, but he hadn’t had the time to dwell over it with the voices of his team crying for help in his ears. He hadn’t given it a second thought until the lion had shut down and the headache had come crashing back into his mind with such force that he’d nearly blacked out.

 

He sighs. He misses Black’s presence in the back of his mind. He wishes that the headache would stop taking up all of Black’s space in his mind.

 

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, and then focuses on activating the bayard.

 

Nothing happens. Again.

 

Shiro frowns. Maybe he’s just not doing it right? He thinks back to when he’d first used it in the Black Lion, but he can’t recall what exactly he’d done to activate it. Actually, he’s not sure if he activated it at all. He’d just put it into the port Black had opened up for him.

 

He thinks further back, to when Allura had given the others’ their bayards. This memory is frustratingly - alarmingly - hazy and dim, but he doesn’t think Allura actually told them how to activate the bayards. They seemed to just activate for the others without any real prompting needed. In fact, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen them put any real thought into activating their bayards.

 

He stares at the bayard, clenched tightly in his flesh hand, and concentrates harder on getting it to do something. Anything.

 

The bayard remains silent and still in his hand.

 

The headache, on the other hands, builds in intensity the longer he focuses on the bayard. Soon the pounding in his head overwhelms everything else.

 

The bayard clatters on the ground as he drops to his knees, clutching his head in his hands and failing to hold back a pained groan.

 

He doesn’t know how long he stays on there, but eventually the intensity of the headache dies down until he’s able to think about something other than the pain again. Once he’s able to open his eyes again and they adjust to the light again, they fall on the bayard lying on the floor where he’d dropped it.

 

He picks it up and all but cradles it in his hands. He wonders how many more tests are going to present themselves on for him to fail. To prove that he’s not really meant to be the black paladin, no matter how much Keith insists otherwise.

 

He lets out a long breath and then slowly pushes himself to his feet. He sets the bayard back down on his desk, promising himself to try again later.

 

He never does.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Please consider [buying me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/W7W3KRCZ) :)


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